like a silverscreen cliché
by S.J Carter
Summary: And they were infinite. —-ElenaElijah (the girl underneath the spotlight and the man watching from the sidelines, but not really).


_Le notes: _Post season 4, future fic, AU. Please don't mind the structure. I have a habit of 'trying to be poetic and unique'. Disclaimer: the lyrics are from All Time Low's 'Actors'

_Summary:_ And they were infinite. **_—_**-ElenaElijah (the girl underneath the spotlight and the man watching from the sidelines, but not really).

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**. _ .**

**like a silverscreen cliché  
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**. _ .**

all we are, just chapters on a page  
'cause after all, we're actors on a stage  
**.**

**/ / /**

It starts like this;

One stormy evening, with thunder and lightning, stuck at home because of the terrible weather. Pressing a button on the telly and flipping through the channels over and over again, on a boring Thursday night. Hoping that it will get more exciting but, only to find yet another vampire show with a supernatural love triangle and all the works. Where it's something like Twilight but not really. Because the vampires don't sparkle and some of them can actually walk under the sun like it's a no-brainer.

The thing about the Elena Gilbert show is that it's always been the ElenaStefan&Damon show. And sometimes Matt, and sometimes even Caroline and Bonnie, and Jeremy too, who make side appearances (but somehow become more and more important over the seasons). The spotlight never really seems to waver though, as the Petrova doppelganger does what Petrova doppelgangers do best; pit brother against brother and fall in to yet another useless love triangle.

Katherine was the first sign that life never goes as one planned. And the saying: 'expect the unexpected' becomes a complete understatement when The Originals come to town. Elena learns not to really _expect _anything anymore. Though Elijah snuck up on her, like an unannounced commercial break.

It really sucks to be the man on the sidelines, looking to the girl who owns the spotlight with nothing but a so-called 'honor and admiration'. But Elijah does what he does best and ends up waiting and waiting.

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**/ / /**

Or maybe, it starts like this;

Inevitably, the vampire fad dies out (apparently, blind werewolves are all the rage right now), and the show comes to an abrupt cancellation around its sixth season. Of course, by the end of it, the girl at the center of it becomes faded and distraught when slowly but surely, the girls on the sidelines finally win the limelight.

Oh, but here comes the kicker; the one where Stefan&Damon suddenly become Stefan_Silas_&Damon and end up chasing each other to the ends of the Earth. Then, the man from the sidelines opens his door to a confused doppelganger, almost frozen in place.

Just as expected; no hello's or how are you's, just a breathless and emotionless "I'm sorry but I didn't know where else to go." He wants to laugh, since it might as well be a complete and utter lie. He's sure that Caroline, Jeremy, Matt, heck even Tyler are kind enough to offer her some company and a roof over her head. But the charm behind her is perhaps the fact that she has no idea what she wants.

Never has and never will.

Then, something hits her. "Am I bothering you?"

Quite frankly, yes. Yes she is. However, the thing about the Elijah Mikaelson show is that it doesn't involve petty remarks or useless vendettas. No, that's the Niklaus Mikaelson show unfortunately. And what's even more ironic about her question is that she could _never _be a bother to Elijah. Because Elijah just chuckles, shaking his head with a "no Elena, of course not," leading her inside his kitchen.

"Would you like a drink?"

A sigh, an intoxicating smile, and a small laugh later. "Yes, yes I would."

Like a cliché, a few drinks end up leading to a drunken confession. _Her _drunken confession, to be exact. About how all her life, someone else has been editing directing and producing her story while all she wants is not even a happy ending, but an ending. Elijah here, is the one who's sober, laughing to himself until she says:

"Yeah, yeah," another sip of whiskey later, "laugh it up Chuckles, but your life's not-so controlled either." It's so ironic to the grand master of control, so much so that he stops laughing completely.

Suddenly, but only for a moment, she's right and he's wrong. It no longer feels like some silly and overused premise for a vampire show but a twisted reality. In which, the innocent girl from highschool falls for the boy on the sidelines who's not even the quarterback (or the seventeen-forever vampire) but a fucking Original.

It would be like The Breakfast Club, only Bender's not really Bender and Claire's not really Claire. And it could be like something Nicholas Sparks wrote up, only with vampires, doppelgangers, and werewolves and witches (except not).

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**/ / /**

Actually, perhaps; this is how it actually started:

She's a teenager; fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and then eighteen years old. Elena Gilbert is a girl who falls in love very often. But she's not that girl who's got a different crush every other week or that special girl who only falls in love once.

She's that girl who falls in love exactly three times and every time, she falls hard.

The first cliché consists of the gorgeous cheerleader and the equally gorgeous football player. A boy named Matt Donovan; who's got her all-set for a perfectly normal life.

The second story, even more clichéd, is about a human girl and a vampire boy who fall for each other like they've never fallen for anyone before. With a name like Stefan Salvatore, he inevitably becomes the boy who's got her way in over her head.

The final tale is the catch of the clichés; the good girl and the bad boy turned good. Damon Salvatore; the boy who's going to love her like no other boy has before.

Then, somewhere in between the lines, along came a man who writes her eloquent letters, lives in regret, and takes her side. Each and every time.

She thinks that they could runaway and be like Rick and Elsa, with her staring out of her open window and him leaning against his ancient Volkswagen with his arms folded around his chest. But not, because Rick's not supposed to be a thousand year old vampire.

It's unlike any book or movie or tv-series that Elena Gilbert has ever seen or read. But they lock eyes, her heart beats fast, and her head spins just as quickly when he has her in his arms and whisks her off her feet.

**.**

**/ / /**

The ending is more than kind of unexpected;

One stormy evening, with thunder and lightning, stuck at home because of the terrible weather. Pressing a button on the telly and flipping through the channels over and over again, on a boring Thursday night. Hoping that it will get more exciting but, only to find yet another vampire show with overly good-looking boys and girls and all the works.

The thing about the Elena Gilbert show is that it never goes the way that it's actually supposed to go. And no one expected an ending where the spotlight faded in to nothingness. Where the girl who was supposed to live happily ever after with a Salvatore ended up picking a man wearing Armani suits (who possesses the oddest sense of humor).

But he makes her laugh, and sometimes, he makes her cry. With stories about his family that make her wish that she'd never laid eyes on him.

"I break everything I touch," she says.

What she doesn't expect, is his never-wavering smile. "Elena, I think you underestimate me. I'm not really all that breakable my dear."

The beginning of it has her travelling to New Orleans, spending day after day in his home (but never the nights, certainly not the nights). She's talking to him until the break of dawn, eating lunch with him, and sharing a laugh or two. Where she purposely leaves behind her purse, cellphone, and sometimes even her coat to have reasons and excuses to see him, again and again.

Hopelessly, it sounds like a far-fetched version of Friday Night Lights, and she wishes it were something like Sixteen Candles because she really wants something that's quite predictable. Then again, some of us did think that somehow, the geek on the sidelines would get the girl in the end instead of the five-star quarterback ending up with Sam after all.

So far, this has been the story that the writers scrapped aside and that the silverscreen forgot to play.

This is not the story of the girl under the limelight, who faded, but still picked the boy from the outside looking in.

This is story of the girl who talks in her sleep, who can never get her hair to go the way that she wants it to go, who's a horrible liar, through and through. And a boy who sees it all but not really because he's more of a man than a boy. But she's only been in love with boys (three to be exact) and has no idea what it feels like to love a real man.

Until the night they tumble in between his sheets of Egyptian cotton, fucking and making love like some young highschool couple. He makes her 'ohh' and 'ahh' and her toes curl when his hips thrusts against hers. She realizes that he's an attentive, experienced lover, nothing like the boys she's been with before.

"The perks of living for over a thousand years, lovely Elena." His accent curls around the words in a way that ignites a fire in her belly. That night, she swears that she's never ever screamed so loud.

And the next morning, she swears that she's never laughed so hard because she's seeing Elijah freaking Mikaelson in pyjamas, with insane bedhair, and a five a-clock shadow.

They are a long-forgotten cliché, an utterly sappy happy ending, and nothing she ever asked for but everything she's always wanted.

**.**

**/ / /**

This is how it ends;

A silverscreen cliché gone absolutely wrong.

–and they were infinite.

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**/ / /**

**End**

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_Le more notes_: I'm getting all these random Elejah feels (probably due to the fact that Elijah switched over to The Originals and so many ships are sinking right now that it's becoming uncountable). Hopefully you liked this story enough to leave me a review!

**_—Xoxo Carter_**


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